Blue Jersey - Recommended Diaries

Why Rep. Andrews Has My Vote for US Senate

annecrets — Sun, 11 May 2008 13:13:02 GMT

Promoted from the diaries -- Juan

I have known Rep. Rob Andrews for many years as a constituent in his District. He has always been responsive, concerned, knowledgeable and reflective, even when we have not agreed on issues. Plus, he is not afraid to change his mind, a crucial trait in a wise politician. Case in point is how he came around to co-sponsor the most important legislation currently pending in Congress -- HR-808 to create a federal cabinet level Department of Peace and Nonviolence (DOP).

I am a social worker committed to its passage (see www.thepeacealliance.org). We started lobbying Rep. Andrews in 2003 about the DOP when we urged him not to vote for the Iraq War. He had many concerns about the DOP then, yet was always willing to listen to us. Plus, he consistently explained his objections in writing, which I later discovered (from my fellow Peace Alliance campaigners in other states and districts) was quite rare for a Congressman.

Finally in 2006 after much dialogue, Rep. Andrews became convinced of the value of the DOP, changed his mind and signed on as one of what are now 69 co-sponsors (only 4 from New Jersey). This took courage and vision because the concept of peace is still so sadly and dangerously misunderstood. Rep. Andrews comprehends how a DOP will confront root causes of violence at all levels of society for real transformation. To quote renowned broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite about the DOP, "It is not a matter of simply getting another Department of government. You're speaking of an entire philosophical revolution." It is high time Peacebuilding be taken seriously!

We are working hard to get a DOP companion bill introduced in the Senate and have been lobbying Senator Frank Lautenberg for a long time. While interested, Senator Lautenberg has not been willing to commit to it. Rep. Andrews recently went on record saying that if elected, he WOULD introduce a Senate DOP bill. This is why he has my vote. Further, I believe it serves as a powerful and concrete example of how voting for Rob Andrews is indeed voting for real change!
MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH,

Anne Creter - NJ State Co-Coordinator U.S. Department of Peace Campaign and United Nations Liaison of the Global Alliance for Departments and Ministries of Peace

Tom Wyka endorsed by NJEA!

BootGOP2006 — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:59:46 GMT

Democrat Tom Wyka, running in New Jersey's 11th Congressional District against Rodney Frelinghuysen, has been endorsed by the NJEA according to several sources. The NJEA has never before endorsed a Democratic challenger in this district.

The endorsement speaks volumes about Tom's committment to public education and lifelong learning. The endorsement will also mean the NJEA will do outreach to all 11th district teachers on behalf of Wyka. The NJEA typically mails and phone banks all its members on behalf of its endorsed candidates.

Why Lautenberg (or Andrews) is probably safe in November, but Corzine isn't safe next year

Dvd Avins — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:26:31 GMT

Promoted from the diaries -- Juan

New Jersey, used to be considered a bellwether state in presidential elections. From 1884 through 1972, we voted for the popular vote winner in every election except 1916, when we rejected our own Woodrow Wilson in a very close election. Now, we're considered safely Democratic—a state a Democratic candidate could lose, but only in a GOP landslide.

But underneath, I don't think much has changed. The Republican's used to nominate moderates for President. From 1928 through 1976, the second most conservative GOP nominee (behind Goldwater) was Gerald Ford. And in that 1976 convention, Ford was fighting the tide of a movement much more conservative than even he was. As the Republican Party has become more extreme nationally, New Jersey has maintained its orientation by voting more consistently Democratic in national elections.
Even before that, we wouldn't elect most Republican senators. The last Republican to represent New Jersey in the Senate was Nicholas Brady, but he was just an appointed place-holder, filling out an unexpired term. He never won an election.

The last Republican to get elected Senator from the state was Clifford Case, last reelected in 1972. But in modern terms, that doesn't really count, either. Case was not merely liberal for a Republican, he was probably the single most liberal member of the Senate from either party. I grew up in a liberally active networked community of families. My parents and their friends were 10–15 years too old to be part of the counterculture, but their politics were similar. And almost nobody who supported Paul J. Krebs over Case.

Digression: Had Case won his primary in 1978, it would have presented a big dilemma. Bradley had first shown up politically as the lead delegate-candidate for liberal champion Mo Udall in 1976, was the Democratic nominee for Senate, and clearly was a potential President that liberals could at least think about supporting. Case was a little better, but being a Democrat counted for something, even when we thought our congressional majorities were secure. And unlike with Lautenberg and Andrews, Bradley seemed much better than we could expect to get by rolling the dice on who else would be Case's replacement six years later. I had decided to support Bradley in the first election I'd actually be able to vote in, rather than just campaign in. But not everyone in my community would make the same choice. We were spared the choice when Case got knocked out in June. /digression

Anyway, the last Republican to be elected before Case was Howard Alexander Smith, last elected in 1952. I don't know much about him, but judging by his Wikipedia bio, he was probably a New Deal Republican. Finally, when we get back to the 1940s with Robert C. Hendrickson, we probably get a more typical Republican.

Nowadays, though, even a Lincoln Chaffee gets rejected by northeastern voters, because it's just too important to pull the rug out from under the national Republicans who seek to undermine the Constitution and the general social contract. So even if Zimmer somehow manages to be perceived as a moderate, his party will be a rock tied around his neck that he's unlikely to be able to swim free of.

But when we look at who New Jerseyans elect as Governor, it's a very different story. In choosing the head of the state government, national politics matter a lot less. And corruption matters more.

In the gubernatorial elections where I knew something about the candidates (meaning since 1969) the difference from one election to the next in the positions of the Democrat have been small. Peter Shapiro might have been better than the rest, but he probably couldn't have gotten the nomination if others hadn't recognized that running against Kean that year would be bad for their careers.

The differences among the Republicans, though, have been huge. I know some people here will object to any comparison that shows our Republican governors favorably, but there has been a decades-old civil war in the New Jersey GOP, and one side is much worse than the other.

Here's what's happened in the last 10 gubernatorial elections:

Year	Democrat	Conservative Republican	Moderate Republican	Winner
1969	Meyner		Cahill	Cahill
1973	Byrne	Sandman		Byrne
1977	Byrne		Bateman	Byrne
1981	Florio		Kean	Kean
1985	Shapiro		Kean	Kean
1989	Florio	Courter		Florio
1993	Florio		Whitman	Whitman
1997	McGreevey		Whitman	Whitman
2001	McGreevey	Schundler		McGreevey
2005	Corzine		Forrester	Corzine

When Republicans nominate a moderate, they usually win. Seven times and they won 5. The only reason we've won as many as we've lost is that sometimes they nominate a neanderthal who's totally out of tune with the state's voters.

One candidate we may have to face is Chris Christie. Since he was a major Bush fundraiser and then survived the US Attorney Purge, we can assume he's an apparatchik who places party loyalty above anything else. That, combined with the Zimmer Holdings Affair may mitigate the anti-corruption advantage that any Republican may have with a Democratic legislature, and which Christie will make a special claim to from his prosecutions.

But ideologically, he's something of a stealth candidate. He's never held normal office, and so has little ideological record. The surest way to beat him is out of our hands. That is, to see that he has vigorous opposition for the GOP nomination, so that he is forced to define himself ideologically in a way that will appeal to GOP primary voters. If that doesn't happen—if he walks into the General Election race with the flexibility to posture however he likes, I think he'll be very hard to beat.